Gift certificates have become a pervasive and traditional type of gift, with over one third of all gift givers giving such a certificate during the holiday season of 1996. In fact, an estimated eight billion dollars of gift certificates were sold in the United States alone during calendar year 1996.
Despite their pervasive use in the retail environment, gift certificates are often perceived as rather unexciting and uninspired gifts. They typically directly display their value, hence leading to judgments regarding the generosity of the giver. Further, they are often viewed by the recipient as a means by which the giver can avoid spending too much effort in selecting an alternate gift.
The Classic Choices catalog gift program, available through the Internet, provides buyers with the opportunity to purchase a catalog of like-priced gifts. A ten dollar catalog, for example, would include an assortment of ten dollar gifts. The catalog is forwarded to the recipient (without any indication of its value), who may select any gift from within the catalog at no cost.
Classic Choices thus conceals the value of the gifts. It is not, however, a traditional gift certificate, in that its use is limited to a pre-selected group of like-valued products. Further, its flexibility is limited in that it cannot be used for less than or more than (with additional moneys added by the user) its true value, as is the case with traditional gift certificates.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,837 to Hayashi teaches a gift certificate system wherein a gift certificate having maximum and minimum values is usable with a vending machine. The maximum and minimum values appear to be made known to the redeemer through actual printing on the certificate, or by encoding on the certificate such that a reader associated with the vending machine reads and displays the values directly or by identifying the number of goods that can be purchased with the certificate. The minimum value functions to prevent too much change from being dispensed by the machine for underutilized certificates. The system permits the redeemer to add value to the redemption value of the gift certificate through the deposit of coins, and to select multiple items having a total cost within the specified minimum and maximum values.
The Hayashi system suffers from the disadvantage of requiring the recipient to do a substantial amount of calculations in utilizing the gift certificate. In redeeming the certificate, the recipient must be aware of both the minimum and maximum values, and carefully select amongst products of known value to stay within those limits. The recipient is thus quite aware of the value of the certificate. Further, the available products are limited to those that can be maintained within a vending machine, and which permit the certificate to be used within its value limits, or with some coinage-type funds added by and/or returned to the redeemer.
A system that would make the redemption of a gift certificate more exciting to the recipient would have the significant advantage of increasing the perceived value of the certificate. Such a system would desirably minimize the recipient's focus on the value of the certificate, and make the redemption process both more flexible and enjoyable. This would not only result in increased satisfaction to both the buyer and recipient, but could also increase the net use of gift certificates in the retail environment, a benefit to retailers.